Silting of rivers in Malawi

The combination of drought and deforestation has reduced the Kasinthula Cane Growers’ (KCG) sugarcane yield by over 28 percent over the past year. Historically, the area where the KCG farmers live gets about 750mm of rain each year, although you need 2,500mm of water throughout a 12 month period to grow sugarcane properly. Over the past few years this amount has even decreased to 350mm of rain. The farmers have...

High water levels in Ghana

Bio Exotica, located on the shores of Lake Volta in Ghana, can no longer guarantee the sweet taste of its pineapples due the impact of climate change. High temperatures are expected to coincide with a certain stage of Bio Exotica’s pineapple crop growth, but last year the temperatures were 1.5 degrees lower than normal, delaying the maturity of the fruit.  Another climatic event is the rising water level in Lake...

Temperature is rising in Zimbabwe

Brookland’s Farm is in the process of becoming Fairtrade certified. The organisation hopes that working with Fairtrade will help the mixed output agriculture business in Zimbabwe’s Manicaland province to overcome the negative effects climate change is having on its operation. The climate has generally been too hot over the past 16 years in terms of its suitability for crop growing. The temperature rises have...

Dying coffee trees in North Malawi

Climate change has wiped out nearly half of the 10 million coffee trees the members of the Mzuzu Coffee Planters Cooperative Union in the north of Malawi have planted since 2003. Despite its members undertaking to plant one million coffee trees each year for the past eight years, they currently only have 5.6 million bushes available to harvest. Input costs are gradually increasing while output costs are dwindling...